


On the Subject of Hope

by Guardian Of The Lotus (DistantStorm)



Series: Fictober 2019 [21]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, that moment when universe comes to a complete stop; realigns; and comes back together brand new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 07:43:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21115202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistantStorm/pseuds/Guardian%20Of%20The%20Lotus
Summary: Zavala will never be able to look at her the same way again.Written for day 21 of the Fictober 2019 Challenge on Tumblr: "Change is annoyingly difficult."





	On the Subject of Hope

He passes her the jug and she fills her canteen with clean water. "All I am saying," He says, always terribly earnest now that they've fought out the majority of their ill will toward each other, "Is that despite survival being a temporary condition - the promise of tomorrow being hardly a promise at all," He pauses, "Change is annoyingly difficult."

They fall into step as she blows our a puff of exasperated air.

"I'd argue differently. Change is what propels us forward. It's easy, if you lean into it." She tilts her head to the side, evaluating him. "You change when you have to. When you realize you've been left behind. The world changes around you and you… don't."

"Then what about these people," He segues, not particularly keen on talking about his newfound mortality and what it may or may not mean. "This change is certainly not easy for them, being ripped from their homes, losing everything…"

They fall into step easily, crossing the main operations-center of the Farm.

"No," Hawthorne concedes as they enter the farmhouse. "It's not easy on them. Maybe it's just easy to me because change is the only thing I've ever known." She peels off her damp poncho and throws it over the unworking radiator to dry. He turns away as she casts her shirt off beside it before throwing on something clean, removing the top half of his armor and the soggy sweater beneath. The thermal shirt below it is dry. "But they'll adapt and survive. That's how we've made it this far."

"In the War?"

"Just living, in general." She shrugs, closing a cupboard in the repurposed kitchen with a snap and he turns back. Her arms are crossed over her chest, and her short hair, wet and stringy, eclipses her eyes. "But yeah, this war, too." She regards him carefully. "Don't people around you change?"

"Guardians mature, certainly. And we watch the humans in our midst grow and change-"

"Like us humans note the passage of seasons."

"Not that drastically," Zavala quips back, mildly amused. "But it isn't… the people in my midst are averse to change. The people themselves change, certainly, but the status quo is maintained. It's a sort of balance, I'd thought, but in times like these…" He sighs. "The people I work with haven't changed in two hundred years."

She hums, never afraid to meet his eyes when they speak, good or bad. "If you ask me, sounds like you could use some new people." She smiles, almost. "Change happens whether you want it or not, Zavala. You've lived long enough to know that. Sometimes-" Her radio goes off and she clicks it, already knowing she's needed elsewhere. "I'm on my way," She says into it. 

He nods, gesturing that she can go, it isn't as though their conversation is of utmost importance. They find themselves in these nearly philosophical debates often. Even so, she doesn't leave, choosing instead to lean over the counter he's standing at.

Her voice is soft, but no less grave for it. "Look, sometimes it sucks. Like now This isn't great, no. But what's going to come out of it… maybe that'll be something better. Change is scary. You just gotta choose to hope that what happens on the other side might be worth the struggle."

Zavala feels the words burning on his lips. He wants to ask her. Wants to know why - how - when the universe struck them down, how she can find the will to push through this, when she has no stake in this at all. He knows they need hope. That they have to keep the faith, but she has no reason, even by her own logic to come back, to offer up her safe haven and-

"I was orphaned young," She says, looking down at her hands. "Nice people took me in. Then I was - well, not exiled," She shrugs, eyes darting to him and away, "But I probably would've been if I didn't go on my own," She laughs to herself. "There's more to life than your City walls. They're safe until they're not, and now all these people are learning that there's power in themselves. We're not immortal or have superpowers, but we have a strength you Guardians don't seem to remember you have, too. I think it's about time we show you a thing or two about being human. Because you are." Her eyebrows raise in a question. "That's why the Traveler picked us, right?" 

Silence. It's - he should say - but - his mouth won't move. He's staring and it's so impolite but he... it's as though everything in the universe has stopped, for just a moment. What she's said. It's - she is - he-

She shakes her head when his stare bores through her and he remains silent. "Sorry, sorry, I was rambling. Forget it. I should go." She lifts her chin in a recognizing nod - respect, she respects him - and he blinks, almost startling himself to awareness. As if he'd lost track of himself for a second there. "See you around."

Zavala should pace, should try to sort this all out - the tangle of feelings: hope, fear, courage, perseverance, the very personal information she's just revealed - things no one, to his knowledge, knew about her, and yet…

And yet his fingers wrap around the crumbling countertop as if for balance because he's reeling. What he's finding in this place - in_ her _\- is invaluable. He cannot look away from her, stalking out into the rainy night, headed to some meeting about munitions and supplies, the way she holds herself, shoulders down, curled in just a touch.

Like she isn't important at all.

That's wrong, he realizes, swallowing hard. It hits him swiftly.

It isn't that. Everyone knows she's an invaluable resource. It's that she doesn't think she's important. She truly doesn't know.

But he does. He knows now, and it's a burning truth that breathes fire in his soul.

She is everything.

Change. Hope.

Needed. So very, utterly needed.

He'll never be able to look at her the same way again.


End file.
